No sleep

One of the worst things is lack of sleep, and at 10 years old Alex still doesn't sleep through the night. We had a big cousin's sleepover last night, they all went to bed late and Alex was up twice during the night, then at 4 a.m. he came into my bed. It would be ok if he went right to sleep, but he asks me to rub his back until he falls back to sleep. So, I start out saying no, then after minutes of whining, and my desperation to get some rest, I give in and rub his back until I can't feel my arm anymore. Of course, the minute I stop he bolts up and tells me he's not asleep yet and the cycle starts again.

Needless to say, he never really falls back to sleep and at 5:45 decides to go check on everybody else. I am able to stall him for a bit, but poor Meghan starts coughing non-stop and the rest of the gang wakes up anyway. And at 6:30 (after getting to bed at 1, and waking up at 4) I am serving breakfast and the coffee is not brewing nearly fast enough.

Alex's nights usually start with him waking up a few times between 11 and 2, then somewhere after 2 he makes his way into my room and insists on getting in to my bed. I am not an idiot, and know I should be firm and walk him back to his own room and do this continually until he gets the point, but after 10 years of not sleeping well along with stressful days, I wimp out. At some point I will be strong, just not this weekend.

We have done sleep studies, there is nothing medically wrong to cause these night time wakings. When he was an infant and until he was about 4, he had severe reflux which would cause him to wake frequently, but other than that, we just add it to the list of mysteries. Unfortunately, the lack of sleep on his part only adds to his tendency to act out, he has got to be exhausted too. Dr.'s have told us to put him on sleeping pills, but seriously, how much medication can one child take? I am such a freak about chemicals that I don't even like giving Motrin half the time! We have a full day planned, hopefully there will be Dunkin Donuts drive thrus along the way....